The Queens doctor who hired a hit man to kill her husband in a custody battle will spend the rest of her life in an “8-by-8, above-ground” grave, a judge said yesterday.
Justice Robert Hanophy told Mazultov Borukhova that she had embarked on a “journey of revenge” after her husband, a dentist, won temporary custody of their 4-year-old daughter, Michelle.
He quoted Confucius, who warned the vengeful to dig two graves.
“Your husband lies in his natural grave,” Hanophy said. “You are about to enter your 8-by-8, above-ground cell, where you will spend the rest of your natural life.”
Borukhova was convicted in Queens Supreme Court after a six-week trial of paying her relative, Mikhail Mallayev, $20,000 to murder Daniel Malakov.
Mallayev was also found guilty of gunning him down in a Forest Hills park in October 2007.
Borukhova and Mallayev insisted to the end that they were innocent.
“I repeat myself again and again,” Borukhova, 35, told the judge. “I had nothing to do with this murder.”
Mallayev, 51, accused the DA of railroading him.
“I live by the Ten Commandments,” he insisted.
The judge responded with his own biblical reference, saying Mallayev took “20,000 pieces of silver” for the killing.
Hanophy sentenced both of them to the maximum, life without parole, plus an additional 8 1/3 to 25 years for conspiracy.
Earlier in the proceedings, Malakov’s father and brother told the court of their loss.
“Will Michelle ever stop having those nightmares that are full of the events of that sunny, crisp morning when she personally witnessed her father being gunned down?” asked his brother, Gabriel Malakov, who now has custody of the girl.